TheCable

Hyacinth Alia, governor of Benue, says the state has uncovered 2,500 ghost workers after the completion of the first phase of civil servants’ verification.

In a statement signed by Tersoo Kula, chief press secretary to the governor, Hyacinth said the verification and payroll audits are extremely important for the sanitisation of the payroll.

He said the process has led to a delay in the payment of salaries of teachers and LGA staff, noting that successfully screened candidates will receive their remuneration this week.

“The decision for the delay in the payment of salaries of the workers was taken after the government discovered mindless padding of the wage bill and other fraudulent manipulations on their payroll,” he said.

“The decision became necessary after the discovery, to enable the government to sanitize and cleanse the payroll; to ascertain the actual wage bill of the state and to know the genuine workers that are worth their wages.

“The first phase of an extensive staff verification and payroll audit for all teachers and local government staff has just been concluded, and it has already uncovered over 2500 ghost workers that have already been removed from the payroll.

“Ghost workers, ghost schools, double dipping, unlawful employment, salary padding, payment to dead or retired individuals, unlawful replacement, and inflation of the wage bill, are some of the payroll infractions discovered from the audit.”